zvi LikesTV

I'm a Gen-X'er, so I didn't spend my high school years glued to my phone, but this movie spoke so much me to otherwise. Booksmart was funny and poignant, and I could relate to everyone in it, even [the Plot Twist]. I love the story of Molly discovering that the reason everybody's her enemy is because she struck first. I love Amy getting to be her own person. To the people saying the sex scene with the girls made them uncomfortable, you must have been watching through your fingers. That scene actually showed less skin than the pool scenes, it was shot very carefully. The pool scene was more male gaze-y and it wasn't very. I also loved that Molly being fat was not a Thing in this movie. Neither was anyone's race or queerness. There was slutshaming in it, but that was called out and pushed back against when it happened. People disliked other people strictly based on behavior, and I think I would enjoy this movie even more the second time because I wasn't bracing myself. To the people saying "This is terrible, watch John Hughes' instead", I've tried watching John Hughes movies, and they're painfully slow and creepily misogynist. (check out Molly Ringwald's New Yorker article and NPR interview) The pacing on this film was right in line with a lot of comedy movies today, and there was plenty of time for a nuanced portrait of our protagonists. I really enjoyed that a very small percentage of the humor was either grossout humor or mocking teachers. Most of the humor was from teenagers being too much or adults trying a little too hard. Booksmart was great.